There are improvements to VoiceCenter, Command Center, SpeakPad, and the Preferences features. Faster enrolment creates a personal Voice Model and the app runs faster than previous Mac versions, IBM claims.

There is a re-designed VoiceCenter, new Command and Preference Centers, and G4 processor optimization for MP G4s and for the Velocity Engine.

The application is capable of recording received dictation onto the Mac.

It's possible to navigate the Web and Finder by speech. ViaVoice contains a vocabulary of 150,000 words, and it's possible to teach it an additional 64,000 words. The new words includes those taken from IBM's legal version of ViaVoice that it shipped for Windows - the legal version no longer ships for Windows.

Simon Cocheme, IBM's UK software marketing manager for the product, said that IBM's own research showed that, on average, people exploit a 12,000 word vocabulary as standard.

Cocheme explained that, for the UK version of ViaVoice, IBM took a sample group of 850-900 people from different UK regions. "They were chosen to read in set text. ViaVoice contains the data, and as you train (Enrolment) your copy of ViaVoice the software can determine a user's unique speech patterns."

ViaVoice, which ships with a USB headset microphone, costs £99.99 (inc. VAT). upgrade from a previous version for £49.99 (ex. VAT).